The National Aeronautic Association records are officially recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). A new record must exceed the existing record by 10 percent for the new record to be established.

If you disregard that 10 percent requirement, how would that change the table?

For instance, the table indicates that Apollo 16 holds the record for "duration of stay on lunar surface" but the Apollo 17 duration was longer.

Would Apollo 8 still hold the record for "altitude above surface of the Earth"?

Would Apollo 12 still hold the record for "greatest mass lifted to lunar orbit from lunar surface"?

What else would change?

David C

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is a sporting organisation. It was established back in 1905. In the early days of aviation performance was low (i.e. small numbers), and measuring techniques relatively crude, and so the 10% margin made sense. Later on that was no longer the case. Though aviation in general long since stopped being a sport, there is obviously still value in independent measurement standards. However, the 10% margin is grossly excessive.

So far as space flight performance is concerned, I personally think that the FAI's endorsement is totally irrelevant.

I say bring on the real numbers.

moorouge

The height above the Earth's surface is contested by Apollo 13. However, there is a rider to this record as I noted back in 1975. It is contested and depends on the source of the information. This is because the distance between the Earth and the moon is constantly changing, even during the course of a flight and so makes it almost impossible to compute.

The highest achieved in Earth orbit is 1360 kms by Gemini 11.

The lowest is 83.5 km by Gemini 3 for a short time on its third orbit.

You mention Apollo 16. This crew holds the record for the highest landing on the moon at 7,830 metres (heights on the moon are measured relative to a sphere of 1,738,000 metres radius).

LM-12

In the "duration of stay on lunar surface" category:

FAI record - Apollo 16 (71:02:13)

real record - Apollo 17 (74:59:40)

In the "greatest mass landed on the moon" category:

FAI record - Apollo 16 at 18,208.0 lbs (8257.6 kg)

real record - Apollo 17 at 18,305 lbs

moorouge

Don't know how these correlate -

heaviest in lunar orbit was Apollo 16 at 34523.1 kg

heaviest in Earth orbit was Apollo 15 at 52819.5 kg

Another Apollo 16 record is the longest solo flight by a US astronaut by Mattingly in lunar orbit of 81 hours 40 minutes.

LM-12

In the "greatest mass placed into lunar orbit from the earth" category, the table indicates that Apollo 15 holds that FAI record, but I agree that Apollo 16 was heavier.

LM-12

From the table, the FAI record for "altitude above surface of the earth" is held by Apollo 8. Based on a footnote in Apollo By The Numbers, the record for farthest distance travelled from Earth is held by Apollo 13.

FAI record - Apollo 8 at 234,672.5 miles

real record - Apollo 13 at 248,655 miles

moonguyron

We all know the moon orbits at varying distances from the Earth. As a result does anyone out there know which of the Apollo lunar missions holds the absolute distance record for being farthest from earth during their mission? This may be the entire crew or perhaps just the CMP.

Editor's note: Threads merged.

Aztecdoug

Apollo 13 was the farthest.

moorouge

Whilst going through my notes on Apollo 8, I found another couple of records to add to this list.

Most accurate landing — this was so accurate it seems that Howard 'Bill' Tindall, the then Head of Apollo Data Priority Co-ordination, was moved to write to the Head of the Landing and Recovery Division pointing out that had the parachutes not opened there was every likelihood that Apollo 8 would have hit the carrier. The distance actually separating the two was calculated as having been caused by drift on the chutes during the descent.

Longest time spent by an Apollo crew in the capsule after splash-down — there was an enforced 45 minute delay while they waited for sunrise as mission rules ruled out a recovery in darkness. This meant that it was some 90 minutes after splash-down that the crew were lifted to the deck of the carrier.